The Crookston Pirate Boys Hockey team continued their fantastic run of form and put up 10 goals for the second consecutive game as they defeated the Greenway Raiders by a score of 10-0 at the Crookston Sports Center as the Pirates celebrated Hockey Fights Cancer.
FIRST PERIOD –
After all of the pregame festivities, which included a ceremonial puck drop by Kari Trudeau, Crookston came out on fire to open up the contest. It only took the team 76 seconds before Jay Reese put away his fifteenth of the season, giving the Pirates a 1-0 lead. Teagan Lubinski came away with an assist on that goal, which will become a common trend throughout the game. The Pirates did a great job with faceoffs and puck possession, and they prevented the Raiders from getting much of anything going offensively. At 8:10, Garrett Fischer circled around the net and put away his own rebounded shot to give the Pirates a 2-0 lead. Then, exactly 5 minutes after that, Brandon Colborn scored on a beautiful pass to give the Pirates a 3-0 lead. Crookston was then able to kill off a penalty in the final minutes before taking that 3-goal advantage into the intermission.
SECOND PERIOD –
As the second period started, Crookston once again came out quickly and were able to score within the first 3 minutes once again as Jay Reese struck for his second goal of the game, giving the Pirates a 4-0 lead. Similar to the first period, there then came a stretch of hockey where there were very few shot attempts. In fact, neither goalie had more than 10 saves in any period throughout the contest, proving that shots on goal were few and far between. After this stretch of hockey concluded, Gavin Aakhus opened the scoring up once again after a perfect pass by Liam Larson, giving the Pirates a 5-0 lead. Then, once again similar to the first period, it took about 5 minutes before Crookston was able to put away another goal, as Ryan Street added his name to the scoreboard, putting away a rebound to give the Pirates a 6-0 lead as the game went into the second intermission.
THIRD PERIOD –
The third period started with running time, which under normal circumstances would lead to less shots on goal. However, Crookston continued to apply more and more offensive pressure throughout the period, causing more grief for Greenway’s freshman goaltender Blayne Kelly. For the third period in a row, Crookston scored within the first 3 minutes of the period, as Tate Hamre fired a missile from the blue line beyond Kelly to give the Pirates a 7-0 lead. Just over two minutes later, Brandon Colborn scored his second goal of the night putting the Pirates up 8. At this point, David Larson, who had only made 9 saves in the game to this point, exited to the bench, allowing Dylan Thode, a senior who has played on the JV squad all season, to come in and get some varsity reps. He recorded 2 saves in 12 minutes, but that was all he needed to record as Crookston continued to play vicariously through their offense. Ryan Street’s second goal of the game gave the Pirates a 9-0 lead, and Greyson Ecker was able to round the score to a perfect 10, as he put away the final goal of the game, giving the Pirates a 10-0 victory.
Crookston improves to 12-7-1 and will play host to International Falls for senior day on Saturday. Greenway falls to 6-12-1 on the season.
For postgame comments from Pirate head coach Josh Hardy, click below.
| Team | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Final |
| Greenway | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Crookston | 3 | 3 | 4 | 10 |
1st Period
1:16 – Crookston – Jay Reese (15) (Greyson Ecker, Teagan Lubinski)
8:10 – Crookston – Garrett Fischer (17) (unassisted)
13:10 – Crookston – Brandon Colborn (6) (Michael Bochow, Grant Funk)
2nd Period
2:20 – Crookston – Jay Reese (16) (Riley Benson, Teagan Lubinski)
9:19 – Crookston – Gavin Aakhus (7) (Liam Larson, Riley Benson) (PP)
14:27 – Crookston – Ryan Street (4) (Teagan Lubinski, Brandon Colburn)
3rd Period
2:53 – Crookston – Tate Hamre (9) (Grant Funk, Liam Larson)
5:00 – Crookston – Brandon Colborn (7) (Michael Bochow, Riley Benson)
9:03 – Crookston – Ryan Street (5) (Teagan Lubinski, Joey Walski)
11:50 – Crookston – Greyson Ecker (12) (Jay Reese, Teagan Lubinski)
| Goalie | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Total |
| David Larson – Crox | 5 | 4 | 0 | 9 |
| Dylan Thode – Crox | – | – | 2 | 2 |
| Blayne Kelly – Greenway | 7 | 9 | 9 | 25 |
